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Gardening

Holes in lawn

(40 Posts)
Stoker48 Thu 17-Sept-20 18:45:59

Seemingly at night holes appear all over the lawn. Don’t appear to touch the borders. . At least six new holes per night of varying depths. They don’t seem to go UNDER ground, mostly about 2 or 3” deep.
No signs of any droppings and whatever it is is not interested in my windwall apples.
Been happening all through summer but getting much worse in recent weeks. Prior to this, never before occurred in twenty years.
Any clues or advice?
Thanks in advance

Stoker48 Sun 20-Sept-20 23:31:28

Thanks again.
No evidence of the culprits as yet ....
If it is foxes, anyone know of a deterrent?

Tooyoungytobeagrandma Sun 20-Sept-20 22:49:36

We have holes and this evening I watched two magpies and a squirrel in different parts of the lawn (where holes have appeared) so think they are the culprits. My dog and cat were going mad at the back door and I couldn't understand why until I looked out to see the lawn being attacked ?

Davidhs Sun 20-Sept-20 07:23:50

The holes look too big for birds, and too small for badgers, possibly rats, if so rat droppings are easily identifiable However I would bet on foxes, how about a vixen with cubs, as anyone with chickens knows, a vixen feeding cubs is very persistent.

Mamma7 Sat 19-Sept-20 20:53:34

Squirrels - we have holes all over our lawn.......sometimes they even remember to put a Conker or beech nut in them! ?

Stoker48 Sat 19-Sept-20 20:34:21

Thank you all for your replies. No definite answer or solution.....
The holes still keep on appearing - between a dozen and 20. They are about 3” or 4” deep, some less so and between 1” and 4” diameter.
I’m going to mention this on a local neighbourhood site and see if any of our neighbors have experienced similar.
Will report back if I find out more.
Cheers, everyone

Grandmama Sat 19-Sept-20 20:16:05

Might be foxes or badgers looking for chafer grubs - we have chafer grubs under our turf but nothing has dug for them - yet. There are brownish/yellow areas on our lawn which is probably from chafer grubs eating the grass roots.

nipsmum Sat 19-Sept-20 18:24:15

My first thought was a Hedgehog. They dig for worms and slugs. As its been quite dry they may have to dig deeper to fond them.

montymops Sat 19-Sept-20 16:55:26

We had a problem like this and it turned out to be badgers who were digging for crane fly larvae. Although the lawn was a bit of a mess we had hardly any daddy long legs in the house that year!

H1954 Sat 19-Sept-20 16:05:39

We experienced something similar a few weeks ago; there was a mound of very sandy soil alongside a "burrow" that was maybe 2 inches diameter across the opening. I flooded this with water and the following morning all the wet earth had been excavated again. We left it alone for a few days and then scraped the loose soil back into the hole.

Fast forward two weeks and whilst I was watering the veggie patch I discovered a small rodent basking in the sunshine on the garden path, in fact I almost stepped on it! I left it alone and then noticed another one scurrying towards the lavender patch. Seemingly they were voles. We have no infestation in the shed or garage so we've left them alone, everything has to live somewhere after all.

Kryptonite Sat 19-Sept-20 14:17:12

This is interesting. Happening to us too. Complete mystery. Never happened before, as others are saying too This thread has suggested some possibilities. H thought badgers. No droppings but scratch marks. Ours is a 'shallow' layer of grass/moss.

Craftycat Sat 19-Sept-20 13:58:52

We get this too. With us it is foxes.
Next door will insist on feeding them but it is our lawn they destroy!

LuckyFour Sat 19-Sept-20 12:14:04

We have the same in our garden. I looked it up on line and I think they are made by voles. I put mouse traps next to the holes but caught nothing, so have removed them. They are still there and there are more so what to do, if anything.

Molly10 Sat 19-Sept-20 12:11:16

It's almost certainly a dinner hole.

It could be made by any number of animals, as it's difficult to guage the size.

I would be inclined to do a night watch to view and photograph the culprit if I was unable to set up a video to record the night action.

Do let us know what it was.

HootyMcOwlface Sat 19-Sept-20 11:55:38

That picture doesn’t look like chafer grubs to me, we had them last year.

HootyMcOwlface Sat 19-Sept-20 11:54:10

Some bumble bees nest in holes in the ground. I was most surprised to see one emerge once from our lawn, and so I looked it up!

Aepgirl Sat 19-Sept-20 11:50:41

I think it’s chafer grubs being dug up by birds.

tiredoldwoman Sat 19-Sept-20 11:46:59

I have them as well and think that it's an emerging Devil's Coachhorse beetle . I hope the birds gobble them up , they terrify me !

Gwenisgreat1 Sat 19-Sept-20 11:30:24

Sounds like an interesting variation of creatures!

pigsmayfly. Sat 19-Sept-20 11:22:59

Exactly the same happening 8n our garden for the first time ever

Carooline Sat 19-Sept-20 10:36:53

These holes were appearing overnight so not squirrels or birds as they are curled up in bed.
My fox visitors dig holes in my lawn to bury food in and to dig worms up to eat. Not great, especially as it’s a new lawn but I’d rather have my animal visitors than a pristine lawn so I put up with it and fill them in each morning.

trustgone4sure Sat 19-Sept-20 10:30:30

Moles/Vowels/Squirrels.
We have holes thanks to squirrels,but they have to live i suppose.

Patticake123 Sat 19-Sept-20 10:23:32

We had a similar issue and discovered it was crows pecking for chafer grubs. If you dig down a few inches you may find one, they are creamy white and absolutely enormous and I guess a delicious treat for a bird.

Kim19 Sat 19-Sept-20 10:06:35

Magpies has been suggested to me. Apparently there's a particular grub they seek out at this time of year.

NotSpaghetti Sat 19-Sept-20 10:02:31

We too have holes. Ours are made by a squirrel- or maybe several.

Sashabel Sat 19-Sept-20 09:58:58

Last night on Gardeners World, Monty Don demonstrated how to easily make turf to repair patches of damaged lawn. Maybe it's worth a watch?